


Hot and shaking (for you)

by TinyButWicked



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Gen, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, Louis has the flu, Protective!Niall, Sick Louis Tomlinson, Sick!Louis, Sickfic, author has regrets, but nothing too graphic, protective!harry, throwing up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:34:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22367230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinyButWicked/pseuds/TinyButWicked
Summary: "That's it. I'm coming home" There was more shuffling on the phone, it sounded nearly like Harry was running around his hotel room now, and Niall couldn't really tell him not to come. Looking at Louis' face told the irish lad that there was only one thing that could bring the older boy any real comfort.//Aka the one where Louis is really sick but thankfully he has some friends to help him
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Comments: 7
Kudos: 140





	Hot and shaking (for you)

**Author's Note:**

> HA!
> 
> So one day I got emotional thinking about waking up to Harry Styles crooning 'Sweet Creature' in my ear and this happened
> 
> Do I know anything about One Direction?  
> Not really.
> 
> Do I love HarryLouisNiallandLarry?  
> Yes.
> 
> And sickfics?  
> Hells yes.
> 
> So here, have the fruit of my obsession (one of many if I might add)
> 
> I know there are inaccuracies. I have no clue of what i'm doing, character or medical stuff wise. But it's fun.  
> (And yes i have an issue of writing the accents out. Bite me)  
> .  
> .

_ "Should really start watching what I eat" _

The irrational thought went through Louis' head as he heaved into the toilet for the fourth time that morning. With a clear head, he would have realised that puking would have been just as gross even if he had followed the disgusting green diet Harry had been gushing about. But now, in his fevered haze, his brain was running a mile a minute (more like flopping all around the place and stumbling from subject to subject without being able to grasp anything) and the second his fiancé's name crossed his mind it made fresh tears well in his eyes.

Louis wanted Harry. He wanted Harry to hold him and make this better.

"You still feel like throwing up, mate? Or you think you could try some juice and crackers?" Louis didn't have Harry right now, but he did have the next best thing. 

It was hilarious how much an irish accent could cheer up a very dull situation. 

Niall's suggestion still made Louis groan. Even the idea of eating anything made shivers run up and down his spine, and the bile to rise to his throat again. Gagging on air, Louis leaned over the toilet again. Niall was rubbing comforting circles on his back, and nothing was coming up anymore. He let out a pitiful whimper before reaching over to flush the toilet.

"Need to brush me teeth" He would have flinched at how worn he sounded if he wouldn't have already been shaking like a leaf.

"Alrighty then. Le's get ya off the floor" Louis vaguely knew that he should have refused to be manhandled around like a ragdoll, but honestly it was quite nice to have someone else holding his weight.

That way it didn't matter that he was dizzy and his legs wobbled like no tomorrow.

"Alright pet. Brush them teeth and then you can get back to bed"

Sounding that worried really didn't suit Niall.

\-----

"Mate, I don't know. 'e's not gettin' any better" Niall bit his lip, squeezing the phone between his ear and shoulder, brushing a hand against Louis' scorching forehead. "The fever's up again"

"Has he been able to keep anything down?" Harry's voice sounds scratchy through the phone, and the irish lad wasn't sure if it was because of the distance or because the younger boy was coming down with something too. 

"No. I've tried juice and soda and water but nothing stays down for longer than fifteen minutes" Louis was asleep, but Niall felt his stomach churn in sympathy at the distressed frown on his face. Poor boy couldn't get a minutes rest, even when the fever knocked him out.

"This is fucking bad" Niall briefly wondered if Harry could actually feel how shitty his fiancé was feeling, because he sounded just as distressed as Louis looked. With the connection these two shared, it wouldn't be a wonder. Louis let out a pained moan, catching Niall's attention.

"Lou? Mate, how are you?" Niall stroked his friend's arm gently, watching as the older boy's eyebrows furrowed down. Sweat glistened on his flushed face, making him look even more sickly.

"Is he awake?" There was shuffling on the other end of the phonecall, and suddenly Niall remembered that it was the middle of the night where Harry was.

"He's… Not quite?" Louis shifted on the bed, squishing his face against the pillow. He let out another moan, followed by a mumble Niall couldn't quite catch at first.

"What do you mean not quite?"

"Well 'e's not exactly coherent" Niall heard a sharp intake of breath at that. "I think he's feeling sick again"

"'azza -" Niall ignored Harry again for a second, perking his ears to hear Louis better. The older lad still had his eyes scrunched shut, but his lips were moving, clearly trying to form words around his dry mouth. "Haz… Ple- please… 'arry"

Niall felt his heart break a little.

"He's asking for you, mate", He muttered quietly to the phone, trying to comfort his feverish friend with a soft touch to his cheek. Louis leaned into it, shifting under the blanket again.

"'azza..."

"That's it. I'm coming home" There was more shuffling on the phone, it sounded nearly like Harry was running around his hotel room now, and Niall couldn't really tell him not to come. Looking at Louis' face told the irish lad that there was only one thing that could bring the older boy any real comfort.

After a few more distressed mutters from Harry, and a lot of whimpering from Louis, the phone call went quiet before the line died completely.

"Don't worry, Lou. Hazza's coming. You'll be alright" And maybe Louis could actually hear Niall's words through the feverish mess in his head, because the whines quieted down for a bit.

\---

The comfort was short lived, after merely forty minutes Niall was dragging Louis towards the bathroom again, arm around his friend's fever soaked back. Louis' feet were dragging against the floor now, and there was no strength left in his body anymore. Niall was wondering if he should call for a doctor, and the thought didn't ease any with the way Louis slumped in front of the toilet, gagging with nothing coming up. 

The older boy was heaving, unable to catch his breath between the waves of nausea barrelling through him. The tears were coming again, and they wouldn't stop. He made a sound between a gag and a sob, and Niall was there again, stroking his back, supporting his weight a bit.

"Just get it all out, pet. You'll be fine. It's alright" Louis leaned on the irish boy, seeking the comfort of his body heat, feeling freezing cold while slowly boiling from inside out.

"Jesus yer fever's high. Should get you into a cold bath or som'thin'" Even through the sickness clouding his head, Louis was sure his friend had lost some crucial screw in his head. Cold bath?

"Ni… N-" Another set of heaving interrupted him, leaving him completely drained after finally passing. His ears were ringing now, and suddenly there were two toilets in front of him. "Uh…"

"Louis?" Niall's voice sounded like it was coming through a body of water. Louis reached an arm towards the sound blindly, finding fabric and wrapping his shaking fingers around it as tightly as he could. Because if he didn't hold on to something he was sure he would drown.

"-Gh… Ni'll… I dun-" Black dots invaded Louis' vision and his brain was slowly wrapping itself around the fact that  _ he couldn't bloody breathe _ .

Too slowly.

"Louis?! Breathe, mate. C'mon, you can do it"

"'azza.. Pleas-e…"

"I need you to breathe"

"Haz… N'all, 'elp -" Louis didn't even know who he was begging to be there and help anymore and when his vision finally went completely dark he could barely feel his forehead hitting the toilet, he only heard the cracking noise.

\----

"Have they told you anything?"

"No, I'm not family so they won't say what's going on. They just wheeled him out of the ambulance and… Shit, he was still doing that… Just shakin' and -"

"Niall, calm down okay? I think you're having a panic attack"

"No but Harry you don't understand he wouldn't  _ stop shaking _ and he hit his fucken head and there was  _ blood _ and -"

"Okay. Okay. You're okay, c'mon. Please don't pass out on me I need you"

"He couldn't breathe and I couldn't help him, okay?! I tried, and I couldn't and now I don't know -"

"It's not your fault, Ni. It's not your fault. It's not on you"

\----

It had been the most nerve wrecking 13 hours of Harry's life. He was exhausted physically, even lifting his finger felt like a chore, but the emotional side was so much worse.

He had been calling with Niall a few times every day, after hearing that Louis had been feeling poorly. First it had seemed like a regular cold but Harry had a habit of worrying, especially when he was across the fucking world. 

But then Niall had started to sound more and more worried over the phone, telling Harry how Louis' fever refused to go down, how he kept throwing up. How the older boy couldn't even get up by himself anymore, because the sickness had taken every ounce of strength out of his body.

And then there had been the mention of Louis basically hallucinating because of the fever, twisting and throwing himself around while seemingly out cold, calling out for people who weren't there. Asking for Harry to help him.

The voice mail Harry had received, while waiting for the connection flight from Chicago to LA, was the thing that still made his skin crawl.

_ "Harry? Haz, we're going to the hospital. Kindered, at West Slauson ave. Louis he.."  _ Niall's distressed speech had been interrupted by something from the background, and suddenly the sound of sirens was very clear.  _ "Mate I don't even know, he passed out and hit his head and he just… God's he started shakin' and jolting and he wasn't awake and I didn't know what to do?! I don't know what's wrong but I'm going with him and Harry i'm so sorry" _

Needless to say, Harry's luggage was now lost somewhere in Chicago, as it hadn't made it to the new, faster connection flight he had managed to book.

Shifting on his seat by the bed, Harry tried to rid the memory from his head by focusing on Louis. Louis, who was still pale and so clearly not alright and looking so small on the hospital bed, fast asleep, not having moved an inch after Harry had been allowed into the room.

But the doctors had promised that he'd be right as rain in a few days.

_ "The convulsions were caused by a high fever of about 40.2 degrees. It's called a fever seizure, they are very common with little children, but it's not completely unheard of with adults. Especially with such a high fever, and we noticed in his records that he does have a history of such seizures from his childhood _

_ The hit to the head, apparently caused by the loss of consciousness caused a mild concussion, and we'd like to keep him under surveillance for at least 48 hours, as concussions and fever don't really go well together _

_ He was also seriously dehydrated, so we'll be giving him fluids and also antibiotics and pain medication through an intravenous drip. He may look a bit rough right now, but I assure you, Mr. Styles -" _

_ "Tomlinson" _

_ "Pardon me. Mr.Tomlinson. Louis will be just fine. As for now, he's just sleeping it off, getting the rest his body needs" _

Harry spared a glance towards the other chair in the room, half smiling at Niall's slumped form. The past few days had been just as stressful to the irish lad, and Harry was happy he was getting some shut eye too. He sure as hell deserved it.

"You're going to drive our little leprechaun to an early grave if you ever pull a stunt like this again" Harry muttered, leaning over to brush his hand against Louis' forehead. The older boy's skin was still warm to the touch, but nothing unbearable.

He didn't even stir at the contact.

"I'd really love if you could open your eyes, love" Harry bit his lip lightly, feeling the same heavy bit in his throat that had been there ever since he had boarded that plane in Madrid. "I know you need your rest but I really want to see your eyes" 

Louis still wouldn't even flinch, and Harry let out a sigh. Patience. He needed patience. Lots of it.

"You know, Cooper Lawrence asked me about 'Sweet Creature' a few days ago. I don't know if you heard" Maybe it was ridiculous to keep talking, but it felt comforting. Harry squeezed Louis' slack hand in his gently. "Our fans have showed their skills at sleuthing once again. They figured us out. Again. I guess they always will because I'm such a sucker for you. Can't write a single thing without you on my mind" 

Harry wasn't sure if he was imagining it or not, but maybe there was a light flicker on Louis' eyelids. He still wasn't moving, apart from the steady up and down movement of his chest, but Harry could have sworn…

"I'm not leaving before you're alright, you know. The shows in Milan and Bologna were cancelled until further notice. I'm going to be right here until you're better, you hear? You mean so much more to me than any stupid tour" And now it was there for sure. Nothing more than a flutter of eyelashes and only the slightest stir of eyebrows but it was better than nothing. 

"I'm here, Lou" Reaching his free hand back towards his boyfriend, to rest it on his warm cheek, Harry started humming quietly. The fans really didn't need to do much 'sleuthing' because no way in the world would the song be about anyone else than Louis.

"Haz?" It sounded more like a raspy breath of air, but Louis' eyes were open. Glazed over with fever and confusion, but open.

"Hi, love. How're you feeling?" Louis just frowned, blinking slowly. His eyelashes looked so long and dark against his flushed cheeks, and it wasn't hard to notice the moisture gathering underneath them.

"Hazza? 're ya really… You're here?" The disbelief and confusion in Louis' voice felt like stabs through Harry's heart but the younger boy still smiled.

"Of course I am. I'm sorry I wasn't before"

"No. You… It's… You're 'ere now" Fat tears were rolling down Louis' cheeks now, only adding to the feverish sparkle in his eyes. He let out an involuntary whine, weakly pulling at Harry's hand that was holding his. "My head 'urts… But.. But you're 'ere" Harry smiled, dimples and all, and leaned forward to press kisses against Louis' face. He felt trembling arms wrapping around his shoulders, holding him against the older boy's warm body.

"I am" He laughed against Louis' cheek. "And I don't plan on leaving for a bit. Not before I know you're alright"

Louis spent the evening a bit distraught and a bit teary because of the still looming fever, holding on to Harry's hand like a lifeline, until a nurse came in to give him a new round of stronger painkillers that knocked him right out. And Harry just happily wiped away any stray tears, and maybe he climbed into Louis' bed against the directions of the staff. 

But the possible scolding he received for it from the night nurse was worth it, if the content sighs and placid mumbles that slipped from Louis' lips were anything to go by.

  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Was it fun? Do tell me.
> 
> Also tell me if you have the imterest for a second part coughcough


End file.
